INSUFFERABLE: We begin with a villain is looking for 50 million dollars or he will finish burying a girl alive. Nocturnus, a Batman styled vigilante hero arrives and saves her although his selfish, glory-hogging teenage sidekick Galahad ends up getting her out and sucking up the good media vibes. Nocturnus meets with and shares a coffee with Lt. Rainwood, explaining his sidekick is his son. We then view the two lives of the two heroes. Nocturnus is the hard driving parent who never was able to accept his son’s best work while Galahad is the angry child who never fit in. Tonight, he spends his time bedding two lady fans and then posting on his web site, which ends with him teasing about how his mother died. Revelations next issue?
If you think you might have been down this road before, you are right. This title was initially launched in 2012 on Mark Waid’s Thrillbent.com website as a digital comic. Well, thanks to the folks at IDW, the book has a hard copy now which has been altered just enough to make you want to read it all over again. This is a fun take on the anti-superhero genre that BRAT PACK and Waid’s IRREDEEMABLE stomped all over. Waid’s writing is his crisp stuff and Peter Krause gives us some killer visuals too! This needs to be on your list, especially if you realize that the concept of spandex clad superheroes is just silly!
DEATH SENTENCE LONDON: Thanks to my friend Ron for turning me on to this title a few weeks back. Ron was VERY ENTHUSIASTIC about how good this was and I jumped in with both feet. To fully understand what’s going on here you need to find the original six issue series from 2014 or get the hardcover reprint. The series, by Monty Nero and artist Mike Dowling got its’ first life in CLINT MAGAZINE and then reprinted with changes by Titan Books beginning in 2013. In a nutshell, we follow three people who have contracted the G+ Virus. This new Sexually Transmitted Disease gives you super powers for six months and then you die. Graphic designer Verity, rock guitarist Weasel, and media personality Monty each have their own ideas of what to do with the time they have left. DEATH SENTENCE was a six-issue rocket ride with a mind-blowing shock filled plots, killer dialogue and great characterization.
DEATH SENTENCE: LONDON is the new monthly that picks up where the mini-series left off. In it, we meet undercover agent Jeb Mulgrew and get visits from some of the cast from the first series. Weasel is seem as a hero while Verity has become drunk with power-literally! It is equally as wild as the original and totally crazy, especially with Martin Simmonds taking over the art chores with his wildly inventive, painted style. In other words, the rock rocks and needs to be on your list. It’s sci-fi meets fantasy meets horror meets the craziest thing you have ever read.
PROVIDENCE: This book is both a sequel and prequel to Alan Moore’s THE COURTYARD and NEONOMICON. THE COURTYARD, by Moore, Antony Johnston, and Jacen Burrows, was a two-issue mini-series published by Avatar Comics in 2003. It followed FBI Agent Aldo Sax who investigates a murder that leads him to a nightclub in Red Hook, where he learns of a drug called Aklo. From there, things get crazy. Moore and Burrows again teamed-up in 2010 for the four-issue NEONOMICON as FBI Agents Lamper and Brears meet with Sax at the psychiatric hospital he is now a resident of. From there, they head to Red Hook before ending up in Salem and a bunch of really bizarre sex rituals leading to the introduction of Nyarlathotep and Cthulhu. While reading those are not essential, they do help.
PROVIDENCE takes us back to Red Hook and the Lovecraftian mythos and fans of Lovecraft are going to go nuts about this book. Filled with killer and quirky characters, interesting plots and a ton of supplemental material, this is a delight! And local fans will get the references and appreciate the inclusion of the map of Providence. Moore’s story is a delight and Burrows art is top notch. My biggest complain with Avatar’s books has been giving us Burrows art on the cover and then something that just doesn’t measure up inside. This one delivers on all cylinders.
FIGHT CLUB 2: I am a HUGE fan of the movie, although I have to admit never having read Chuck Palahniuk’s book. So, when I saw this sequel solicited, I was thrilled. And I am glad to say the book does not disappoint. The sequel follows Sebastian and his subdued other half Tyler Durden. Meanwhile, his wife Marla is doing her best to try and coax out Tyler to again do what he does best. Throughout it all, we see characters and situations from the original material re-emerge. And if you thought that Project Mayhem was dead just because Tyler was gone, you are greatly mistaken.
We get wild sex, blood, guts, chaos, and therapy sessions, complete with a meeting for folks affected by Hitchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. Palahniuk and Cameron Stewart combine for this off the wall read that only makes me want to but the movie in and play it over and over again. It SO EMBRACES the glory of what made FIGHT CLUB great. It’s all bang and flash and just so wild that I want this to be a weekly!
SWORDS OF SORROW: This is Dynamite Comics answer to the summer blockbusters offered by the BIG TWO. Dynamite has made a name for itself by sucking up the license for all sorts of comic characters including The Spirit, The Shadow, the Gold key heroes(Magnus, Turok and Solar), along with the popular concept of multiple covers. This title has the distinction of releasing an epic 26 COVERS (collect them all and go broke today!)! This six issue series by Gail Simone and Sergio Davila brings together the women of Dynamite in one epic battle against the forces of evil who are out to take down Everywhere, Everywhen, and Nowhen. Included here are Vampi, Red Sonja, Lady Rawhide, Miss Fury, Dejah Thoris and the female Kato. On the other side of the ledger, fighting for the bad guys, is Purgatori and a bunch of comic bad girls.
While the concept sounds great and all and the art looks unbelievable, there is just too much going on here. Factor in the half dozen or so one-shots and mini-series that tie into this and it gets even more confusing. I have always been a big fan of Simone’s work, but this just feels like a forced agenda being shoved at me. I can certainly enjoy sticking strong-willed heroines in the forefront of a good comic and agree we should have more strong willed women heroes in comics. But this just feels too over the top to enjoy, although I give Simone credit for juggling 20 characters really well. And the concept of having all of this happen in different times and places at once is a concept we have seen too many times before. I wish I could recommend it, but I can’t.
JUSTICE, INC. THE AVENGER: I have been a HUGE fan of Richard Henry Benson’s alter ego since Warner Paperback Library started reprinting them back in the heyday of the DOC SAVAGE boom. With the selling point being that Kenneth Robeson, the man behind DOC SAVAGE, was behind him, it was easy to get a twelve-year-old kid to dive right in. As I learned years later, Robeson was a pen name used by many authors and Lester Dent, the main man behind Doc Savage, wasn’t the same guy who wrote The Avenger’s adventures and most of these were written by Paul Ernst. That didn’t matter, as the character was just different enough to capture my imagination. He has appeared several times in comics, most recently in a five issue mini-series from Dynamite alongside The Shadow and Doc Savage.
The current incarnation is from Mark Waid and Ronilson Freire and right from page #1, this book is an adventure lovers dream! Benson and his team are called upon to help a woman figure out why a ghost is haunting her home and it is done in such a loving pulp style that you would swear it is straight adapted from a pulp novel. Waid simply nails it here with some of his best work! This is such a great book that I really can’t express my love for it any more than saying that you need to add this to your pull list. It’s a fun, non-spandex filled ride into adventure. So pull the covers over your head, whip out your flashlight and journey back to the simpler times.
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